China O'Brien 2

Although this film is a Golden Harvest co-production, don't expect the fight choreography to be much better than average. For one thing, the villains are not very skillful fighters, and even those few who appear intimidating at first are defeated rather easily (I hate it when that happens). There is still some of the usual good stuff from Richard Norton and Cynthia Rothrock here, but the rapid-fire Keith Cooke easily outshines them both. Biggest disappointment: early on, the movie introduces a super-fit stripper / assassin, and I was hoping for a climactic fight between her and Rothrock; not only does that never happen - she also disappears completely from the film! (**)

International female Karate sensation Cynthia Rothrock has never made a perfect movie in her 20+ years as a high-kicking, "B"-movie martial arts maverick. In all likelihood, especially now in today's time, it doesn't seem like she'll ever make a "perfect movie." Of course, for the longest time she was probably the most well-known female American martial arts champion to make a name for herself in the movies. "China O'Brien II" is a sequel to the 1990 first film, and has Rothrock returning as the title character, the sheriff of a small Midwestern town who has to deal with an escaped convict who has ridden into town and puts a price on her head when she foils his latest drug scheme. Together with a fellow Karate champ (Richard Norton) and an Indian biker ("Reptile" Keith Cooke), they set about making sure the bad guys get the proper punishment. "China O'Brien II" has three things going for it that really make it even worth viewing as a rental: Rothrock, director Robert Clouse, and producer Raymond Chow; the names Robert Clouse and Raymond Chow should be ringing bells because they collaborated in 1973 on the greatest martial arts movie ever made, "Enter the Dragon," which starred the late, great martial artist to top them all off, Bruce Lee. With such a collaboration behind "China O'Brien II," you wouldn't expect cinematic gold like "Enter the Dragon," but you would expect something better than what we get here. Rothrock is not a particularly good actress (and neither are many of the other performers, I'm sorry), but I guess her biggest saving grace are her phenomenal fighting skills, and that is when she (and the film as a whole) is at her best. With such strong talent involved in the production of this film, "China O'Brien II" probably would not have become a classic, but it could have been something much more memorable.

3/10

This time China O'Brien has trouble with a dealer who puts a prize on her head because she had spoiled an important drug deal of his. But all the world's criminals will not be enough to ... She's back... and deadlier than ever.

A bit slow to get moving due to the set up, but at around the third act the sequel of China O'Brien gets moving with some spinning kicks which our trio ( Rothrock, Norton and Cooke) hand out with unrestrained relish. It's not as good the first film, the story not as engaging, however it's a joy to see some straightforward martial arts, blocks, strikes and locks. I especially am impressed by Keith Cooke, who clad in leather jacket, channels Bruce Lee but with more leg action. Boy is he nimble and fast. Pity he didn't have a film career of his own, he got the moves. All in all, China O'Brien is a standard yet satisfying sequel.

Just having sat through the 1990 movie "China O'Brien" and been positively surprised and entertained by it, I opted to carry on and watch the 1990 sequel "China O'Brien II". And just like the predecessor, it was a movie that I had never seen before, given my lack of interest in Cynthia Rothrock in general.

Writers Robert Clouse, Craig Clyde and James Hennessy put together a script and storyline that wasn't as entertaining as the predecessor. Sure, it was a watchable movie, but the narrative was a bit all over the place, and there wasn't really a properly cohesive red thread throughout the course of the movie, making it feel rather erratic and random.

It was good to have the three leads from the first movie return to reprise their characters and roles in the movie. And the acting performances in the movie were fair.

"China O'Brien II" was held afloat by the action and martial arts sequences throughout the course of the 92 minutes that the movie ran for.

This sequel, from director Robert Clouse, was disappointing in comparison to the predecessor.

My rating of "China O'Brien II" lands on a five out of ten stars.

Same thing I've said for China O'Brien applies to China O'Brien 2. They should have hired the guy who did the choreography for "Inspector Wears Skirts" for this movie, and upped the action to that level.

Made by Golden Harvest, and produced, and directed by American producer and director, China O'Brien was in the perfect spot to take advantage of best from both worlds. Unfortunately, Raymond Chow probably didn't want to put in the budget to make this into a first class movie.

It could have been like "So Close" if China O'Brien character was bit more edgier, but this is a product of the '80s, so edginess was not part of movie making. She kind of looks too wholesome that takes away from her sex appeal, and also lowers the tension of the movie.

The producers failed to produce Cynthia Rothrock properly. She could have done lot better in these movies.